It’s always great to see your friends doing well, but when it’s a major sponsorship deal for a sport that they dedicate themselves to, it’s especially humbling. My good buddies Alex Law, Joe Ankers and Matt Samuel (formerly known as SkidRoh) are now the Car Loan 4U Drift Team, and I spent a day with the guys last week as they went to collect their cars from being vinyl wrapped to hang out, talk skid cars and eat a lot of pizza.

In their previous guises none of their cars were particularly tatty on the outside, although the quality of the paint job on Alex’s S14a (applied with a roller, no less) was certainly debatable. The standard of their exteriors is no longer in question though thanks to the fantastic wrapping work from Tunncliffe Signs.

Joe’s Onevia was quite possibly the most subtly styled car in last year’s BDC which gained it quite a lot of notoriety thanks to its street car exterior and competition car credentials. There’s none of that any more though, with the Car Loan 4U livery adorning the new Chuki sideskirts and Type-X front bumper from Magic Aero. The rear bumper has also been treated to new spats and a custom centre valance, both also from Magic Aero.

As a car that isn’t road legal and therefore isn’t driven on the UK’s far from ideal highways Matt’s Z32 300ZX was always the cleanest of the bunch, but that’s not to say that it hasn’t also benefited from some TLC on its exterior. I usually hate headlight film but I think Matt’s 300 pulls it off brilliantly, so fair play to him.

Alex eventually rocked up and then the cars were taken outside so we could have a better look. A number of the guys from Car Loan 4U had also turned up to have at look at their cars, talk drifting and get a better understanding of what they were getting involved with!

We then moved the cars one at a time into a dead end on the industrial park so we could get a few shots for their website that is currently under construction. I wish we could have found a more suitable location but unfortunately the weather had other ideas and we didn’t have much time.

First up was Joe’s Onevia.

Next, Matt’s Z32.

And last but not least, Alex’s S14a. Alex has made quite a few visual changes for this season, with the homemade front bumper being one of the most obvious. The Rocket Bunny spoiler has also been ditched, which is a bit of a shame as I quite liked it on the car.

Under the bonnet lies a freshly rebuilt, fully forged SR20, ready to take on everything that is thrown at it for the foreseeable future. Considering the engine trouble Alex had last year I’m hoping that this spells an end for the woes that he had with power plant in its previous guise.

And there you have it, the Car Loan 4U drift team. Three grassroots drivers in grassroots cars, ready to take on the country’s best. The first round of the BDC is at Lydden Hill in a few weeks time so it’ll be great to see how they get on.